We WILL NOT run out of resources!

This should be a required mantra for people to say everyday. *We WILL NOT run out of resources. We have EVERYTHING we need here on Planet Earth*. Repeat three times. etc.. etc.

Of course in our world of today this statement is not true. We are consuming more than our fair share of resources and we also have a strict tiered hierarchy where the very few get most of the spoils, i.e. 1% of people own 20% of the World's wealth.

Many in the Green movement cry foul at the sheer quantity of people in our world and say that we are doomed to failure due to the size of our populations. I for one do not buy into this argument and scarcity thinking. I firmly believe we do have enough resources for the people of the world; the problem is that we have no idea how to distribute the bounty from the earth fairly.

If so few get so much it means that the average person never feels like the world is a fair place. They may have employment and an income but they are always fearful that some outside influence (a boss, a recession, outsourcing) can take that job and income away from them. So their physical representation of the Earth's bounty (i.e. monetary income) is not guaranteed in their minds. Therefore we do not have trust among the many that we will always be looked after. The upshot of this is that we will try to hoard resources and will do whatever it takes to get rich quick to beat this scarcity mentality. It explains why we have all accepted the notion of the free market economy for so long. We see that 1% with so many of the spoils of the Earth and believe that one day it could be us.

However what is a far better solution all around is if we have the absolute faith and know that we ALL can access the resources of the world (through physical manifestations like money) whenever or wherever we need them throughout our lifetimes. The best way to do this is to form local communities and to use those communities as springboards towards true sustainability. One proactive step to take is to set up bartering systems within those communities. Straight away we start to take some of the power away from the current economic system and start to get security in our lives. Therefore, even in recessionary times we have enabled ourselves to "earn resources" from the earth that no outside influence can take from us. After all bartering of goods and services keeps "resources" flowing freely through a community without monetary transactions.

I am NOT advocating a return to a socialist regime that was supposed to advance a fair society for all. In that system the few again exploited the resources of the Earth and further exploited the masses. It never met it's intended goal. However if we all take our individual power back and align into strong local communities then we can start to implement solutions in our lives that can force a natural re-distribution of the Earth's resources. Bartering in our local community is a strong step in this direction.

If we barter it means we are not forced to earn bigger and bigger sums of money in the wider economy to pay for the goods and services we normally outsource. Now instead we could possibly get those from our local economy. As an example we may need plumbing services that would have cost us 5K traditionally. Perhaps we can now request those services (if available) in our local economy. These services will be assigned a points ranking. We now owe the system this value of points. The corollary is that the plumber who did the work has built up this value in credits. The Key thereafter is that I do not owe him the points directly. I have my own skills, labour and talents that I can offer others (or the plumber). I will need to offset his work to me over time to the community. Since I am performing my own unique skills and services it means I can offer them to the community at a time of my choosing. The plumber can also "draw" from his credits too, either from me or from others in the community.

The upshot is that we create a circular movement of goods and services but are NOT paying excessive fees to the outside "market" economy. This has the desired effect of meaning we need to work less and have shorter working lives in the wider economy. Of course this frees up even more time to work in the local economy. Over time we can envisage a future where our current totally unsustainable economic model is de-leveraged by the growing influence of thriving local community economies.

We then start to experience true sustainability and also much fairer distribution of the earth's resources. This is because we can begin to TRUST that our goods and services will always be needed and that we can trade and work our way sustainably and securely into the future years. No longer can recessions/outsourcing/bosses etc. decide our faith on a whim.

Of course all of this coupled with advancing self integrity will mean that we can start to imagine a future where we do not abuse the natural resources of the earth. If we learn to trust as above it means we will inevitably end up with a far more mature relationship with the earth. Our integrity and trust combined means we will have a relationship with the world where we will only take what we need, when we need it. I believe that is when we will return to balance with the Earth.

Remember if we can change then we will NOT run out of resources, in whatever format we need them.